Mulitple Points of View by Jenn McKinlay

First, we have a contest winner! Gail Donovan chose Gillian B as the winner of her book, Sparrow Always. Congrats, Gillian!!! You can contact Julia at juliaspencerfleming at gmail dot com to connect with Gail!!!

JENN McKINLAY: I recently did a summer reading event at the Poisoned Pen Bookstore with the fabulous authors Christina Estes and Allison Brennan. We talked about our upcoming books (naturally) but also what we're reading. You can watch the chat here:

Poisoned Pen Summer Reading Reccomendations

During the Q&A portion following our chat, a male reader asked how we felt about multiple points of view (not one or two but MULTIPLE) in novels. Did we use them? How did we manage it? And while Allison, is currently writing a book with something like nine points of view, I don't think I've ever attempted more than two. But the conversation did get me wondering if I could write more than one or two and how would that look. I have no idea. I'm still wrapping my head around it.

So I turn to you, Reds, to ask what’s the most POVs you’ve ever written? How did you manage it? And do you enjoy multiple POV as a reader?

HALLIE EPHRON: the most I’ve done is 2 viewpoints. And not until I was several books in and felt confident managing one. 

I’m reading a book now with 5 viewpoints and multiple timelines and nearly gave up several times when it felt as if I had to take notes to keep the characters and events straight. Make it hard to follow the narrative and you risk losing readers.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I love love love multiple POVs (when they work) and “when they work” means I have no trouble keeping track of the people or the situation AND that they propel the story forward instead of slowing it down. I love the dramatic irony it provides when the reader knows something the character doesn't.

Two seems logical for me, and many of my books have two. (Not the current one though, or the new one. Or the one after that. Hmmm.)

I think multiple PV in multiple timelines is a juggle only for the most proficient. (The Time Traveler's Daughter, yikes, but SO good!) 

Bottom line, I'm realizing that if the author can pull it off, it can be terrific. Interesting that on TV or in movies, it’s usually no problem. Because we can see the character and the setting, and don't have to imagine it or figure it out. 

I’m starting a book now that has five. We shall see.

RHYS BOWEN: I quite enjoy both reading and writing multiple points of view. In Farleigh Field had 5 I believe. But as Hank says it has to be done well or it’s jarring to be snatched back and forth, or, worse still, not know which time period we are in ( I’ve read a few of those)

LUCY BURDETTE: Most of my books have been in first person with one point of view. My break from that came with the suspense standalone, UNSAFE HAVEN. In that book I used three POV in third person, with occasional short chapters from the bad guy. (My agent hated those chapters so I cut them down!) It’s funny to me that I had to go back and browse through the book to remember what I did. 

I don’t like the whiplash of being jerked around from character to character if the writing isn’t done well, but it can surely be effective. I’m reading HEARTWOOD by Amity Gaige right now–it has several POV written in different ways, plus some press releases and diary entries. It took a few chapters to get into it, and I strongly prefer one of the characters, but it’s quite gripping. Have you all read this one?

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I’ve always used multiple viewpoints, and I’d pull my hair out if I had to look back through in all my books and count them. Suffice to say, I think the book-in-progress has eight so far. Of course, Gemma and Duncan are the main POVs, but I love using multiples to show the readers the things that they can’t see. And to develop the other primary characters, like Kit, Melody, and Doug.

Oops, I just thought of two I left out, so make that ten viewpoints! I hope they won’t be too hard for the reader to follow.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Count me in on the multiple POV side! I only used two for my debut novel - the hero and heroine - but I quickly got hooked on the storytelling delights of switching narrators. Since Debs and I compared ourselves last week when talking about branding, let me continue the comparison. 

We both write about communities with many members the readers have come to know and love, and our mysteries usually involve a relatively wide geographic area, with lots of different sorts of people who have specialized knowledge. In Debs’ case, it might be a pub keeper, in mine a worker at a dairy parlor. This is exactly the sort of fiction that calls for multiple POVs. Which means when you have ten or eight narrating characters, it seems natural, and not a gimmick the author is using to create suspense.

How about you, Readers? Do you enjoy MULTIPLE points of view when you read or not so much?

Lucy's Floundering in Possibilities #amwriting

 LUCY BURDETTE: I have just finished reading an advance copy of Rhys’s April book, THE VENICE SKETCHBOOK—you have such a treat ahead of you! But I mention that not to gloat, but because she’s so good at telling a story over several time periods using several points of view. I’m musing over how to do exactly that with this lump of an idea that I have. I’m at the awkward point where many directions are possible—how to choose the ones that will best tell the story? Here's what I know...

I’m pretty sure two characters, Betty and her daughter Winifred, will narrate the story. And it will take place in Paris and New Haven. I know these characters exist because they appeared in the book that is presently in my agent’s hands. But there is so much to find out about them, not to mention how to structure the book. And what kinds of bigger secrets might be involved with the Frenchman to whom both are tethered?

It’s kind of overwhelming. Thoughts, suggestions, brainstorms all most welcome! Here are the tiniest and roughest little snippets…

Betty, April

Betty was certain she had French blood in her veins. What else would explain how she’d begged her parents to let her spend half of her junior year in Paris although they had already paid full tuition to her private women’s college? Even though French was not useful in her current life other than in names of recipes, she subscribed to several 'news in French' podcasts and had a weekly standing appointment with a senior citizen in a Parisian elderhome who was happy to let her practice. 

And how else could she explain the intense but disastrous affair with a young Frenchman that had ensued in Paris, followed by the unexpected pregnancy that she’d been totally unprepared to handle? He'd been handsome and slender and so romantic, and he could cook like a dream. That part at least she knew was still true, because she'd followed his career through three restaurants, two cookbooks, a Michelin star, and three wives.   

Winifred, April

The birthday cake that birth mother, Betty, (BMB, that’s what she’d dubbed her privately) had presented on their second meeting was perfect, a light-yellow sponge, not the least bit dry, frosted with thick mocha butter cream. Happy Birthday Darling Winifred! had been piped in French chocolate across the top of the cake. And pink fondant hearts floated around the edges and drifted down the sides. It was the most beautiful and perfect homemade rendition of her favorite cake ever. 

Baked and decorated by the mother who had given her away when she was less than 24 hours old.

At first, she’d been overwhelmed with gratitude and excitement at the idea of meeting her biological mother. But by the time their second coffee date arrived, taking place in the adorable new cafe where BMB cooked and jabbered with her girlfriends, complete with the perfect cake, her anger began to prickle and then surge. How does a woman take care of her baby through nine months of pregnancy, suffer through labor and delivery, and then hand the little bundle—the size and lumpy shape of a beginner’s loaf of sourdough bread—off to a stranger? It didn't compute. 

Lucy again: That's about all I know! How do you feel about more than one point of view in a novel? Any favorite books that handled this especially well? Ideas about the mysterious Frenchman?

Breaking news: Lucy's latest, THE KEY LIME CRIME, is featured today on First Chapter Fun, the brainchild of our own Hank, plus Hannah Mary McKinnon. Join the fun today on Facebook live and Instagram live, 12:30 pm!

Win Devil's Bridge!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: What a special guest we have today! But before you hear from Linda Fairstein (whoo hoo)—let me ask you: What were doing in 1996? That was the year President Clinton (be well!) appointed Madeleine Albright as first female US secretary of state. The F.B.I. arrested the suspected Unabomber. Big movies were The English Patient, Fargo, Jerry Maguire. The Academy Award for best picture went to Braveheart. Ebay was started.

And remember? A gallon of gas cost $1.22. A stamp for a first class letter? 32 cents. Average cost of new car was $16,300.00. And a loaf of bread $1. (How much does bread cost now?)

Anyway! That year was a big one for Linda Fairstein.  It’s the book-birth year for the Alex Cooper novels.  This week, the 17th Cooper is out—and it has a BIG TWIST. And that’s what Linda joins Jungle Red today to reveal! 

LINDA FAIRSTEIN: So funny to think of 1996, Hank! Yes, my series of crime novels started that year when I 'created' Manhattan sex crimes prosecutor Alexandra Cooper. 

I gave her two great NYPD detectives, Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace, to partner her in her professional life.  My readers seemed to see, long before I was conscious of the fact, that I had set up a lot of sexual tension in the friendship between Coop and Chapman.  And although there were sixteen novels, the trio only aged three years (one of the joys of writing fiction, I think) in those stories.  It wasn't until the last book (TERMINAL CITY) that the duo crossed the line from best friends to become lovers. 


 At book signings for years now, when fans asked whether there were other things I wanted to write, I always answered that I would enjoy doing a book from Mike's perspective.  I know him as well as I know Coop, and I thought it would be fascinating for me to explore the world from his point of view.  After my editor, Ben Sevier, heard me say that to an audience for about the tenth time, he took me to lunch and asked whether I really did want to write a Mike Chapman book.  I jumped to say 'yes'.  His reply was a nudge to do it, to give it a try.  It was our secret, and I spent weeks trying to figure a way into the story I wanted to tell.

When you've had success with a series, it's a dicey idea to fool around with the characters.  I decided to start with Coop's voice, as I always had, and let her take the reader through a day in court.  And it's a really bad day.  Things go dreadfully wrong for my protagonist, and after an evening celebrating someone else's success with other prosecutors and cops, Coop disappears.  Seventy pages into the story, when her world crashes to black, Mike Chapman picks up the narrative.  He has no idea that the woman he loves has gone missing as he dives into a homicide investigation in Harlem - unrelated to Coop's disappearance...or is it?  

From that moment on, we see and know what Mike does - what he learns about Alex and whether she lied to him, about whether her disappearance was willful and voluntary, about whether her long list of enemies is the secret to an abduction - or are the bad guys out to make another point.  It was a bit scary to do at first, but as I got more comfortable in Mike's head - in his mind and in his mouth - I had more fun than I have ever had writing a book in this series.  DEVIL'S BRIDGE is Coop and Chapman with a huge twist, and I'm anxious to see how my readers react to it all.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: And because she in the most generous person on the planet, Linda is offering PRIZES!  So we'll make it easy. What were you doing in 1996?  I was..let’s see. An investigative reporter in Boston, and meeting my husband Jonathan! (BIG year for me!) How about you?

   We’ll choose a commenter at random—to WIN a new hardcover of  DEVIL’S BRIDGE—and another will win a paperback of  TERMINAL CITY!

*******************

Linda Fairstein is one of America’s foremost legal experts on crimes of violence against women and children. For three decades, from 1972 until 2002, Fairstein served in the office of the New York County District Attorney, where she was chief of the country’s pioneering Sex Crimes Prosecution Unit for twenty-six years. In that position, she supervised the investigation and trial of Manhattan cases involving sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse, and homicides arising out of those crimes. She was the lead attorney in the homicide prosecution of Robert Chambers (the “Preppy Murder” case) in 1988, and directed major litigation in these specialties.
 Fairstein is an honors graduate of Vassar College (1969) and the University of Virginia School of Law (1972). In 1998, Fairstein’s law school classmates established a scholarship fund in her honor at their alma mater, supporting law school students interested in pursuing careers in the public sector. She has received numerous awards for her legal work and advocacy, and in many instances, was the first woman to be so honored. 
 Ms. Fairstein is the author of an internationally best-selling series of crime novels (translated into more than a dozen languages) which feature Manhattan prosecutor Alexandra Cooper. The sixteenth in the series – TERMINAL CITY – debuted in June 2014 and was an instant New York Times bestseller, as were the dozen books which preceded it. DEVIL’S BRIDGE was published in August, 2015.  Fairstein serves on a number of non-profit boards.
 She is a trustee of Vassar College; and a founding member of the Joyful Heart Foundation (Mariska Hargitay of Law/Order: SVU’s charity to aid victims of sexual assault, where she co-chairs the national project to end the rape evidence collection kit backlog); Safe Horizon (the country’s largest victim advocacy organization); and God’s Love We Deliver (which feeds terminally ill New Yorkers). Fairstein lives with her husband Michael Goldberg in Manhattan and on Martha’s Vineyard.

Wanna See WHAT YOU SEE?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: It’s  “What We’re Writing” week—and I’m slam in the midst of copy-editing the new WHAT YOU SEE—which, I’m thrilled to say, has a pub date of October 20. And ta-dah: Here’s the current (work in progress) cover!   

I think a lot about structure of my books—because it’s a crazy difficult balance. My stories are completely chronological and linear. They begin at point A, and end at point Z. What makes it a balancing act is working to tell one essential story from several points of view.  There's Jane Ryland, the smart and determined Boston reporter. Jake Brogan, the honorable and determined Boston detective. Then—three more.  Different voices. New voices. Some of those characters survive the book, some don’t.

The goal is dramatic irony. Each character only knows what he or she knows. But the reader knows it all.   Which means the reader sometimes knows if a character is making a mistake. Is making an unwise decision.  Is on the wrong track. It’s how I build suspense. I hope.

So in each book, my task is to create three delicious new point of view characters…people who’ll you’ll come to know and care about—or at least be curious about. And you might try to predict their future.

Here’s someone you’ll meet in WHAT YOU SEE.  As we open, there’s been a fatal stabbing in a Boston park. You know Jake’s already there.  He doesn’t know it--but you do--Jane’s on the way. What they both don’t know—there’s another person of interest already on the scene. Remember, the book is titled WHAT YOU SEE.

                                                 Chapter 2

     He’d gotten the shot. Totally what happened—well, not exactly totally, maybe. Bobby hadn’t been at Curley Park from the exact moment one. But how cool was it that the bus was late, and he’d been running behind for class anyway, and he always had his camera ready just in case. And blam, he’d clicked off, like, twenty shots in a row.

     Had he gotten a good one of the stabbing? Of the person running away? He thought so, even just the back of him. Or her. He couldn’t wait to see, but he couldn’t afford to look yet. If he had? This’d be big.

     Bobby Riaz tried to look small and inconspicuous, his red sux T-shirt, with, like, the same typeface as Red Sox, so people sometimes didn’t get it, morons, was pretty much covered by his work shirt. Plus, nobody was looking at him right now. They were all looking at the dead guy under the Curley statue.

      Television had that “Send it to 2” thing, where they’d show your photos or video or whatever. All he wanted was to be part of it. Get discovered. Move to LA and hit the big time. Photographer to the stars.

      So far he’d been on “Send it” once, last winter, when that truck jackknifed off the Longfellow Bridge, and he’d gotten that photo from underneath, some kind of hot liquid sizzling down into the snow from however the engine worked, and those two huge tires hanging off the edge into nowhere. They’d put his actual name on the screen, photo credit Bobby R, for about five seconds, maybe more, but then they’d put it on the Web site, too. So it was almost like having a published photo, right? All except for the money. And he bet he could get big money for today’s. From someone. He just had to figure out who.

      Luckily it wasn’t as hot as it had been, even though the sun was a bitch today. He twisted his camo cap around so the bill was shading his eyes, then turned it the cool way again. Life was all about the image. The sun was making weird glares on everything, and the trees, totally leafy and totally in the way, didn’t help. But he’d gotten something, he was sure. He had the eye. Even his mom said so.

      His mom also said he’d get in trouble someday with his picture taking, but she was wrong, what did she know? The paparazzi were all over television, got big bucks and hung out with rock stars. Well, not exactly hung out, since they were always suing them and shit, but he was gonna be different. He figured that if you were nice to people, let them know you understood their fame, they’d let you take their pix.

      And this moment, this very moment, might be the time his future would begin. But who would he be when that happened? He had to plan.

     Who he was now? Bobby Riaz. What a sucky name. His mom’s name was Jones, even suckier. Maybe he’d be Rob Something, maybe. Rob Avedon? Which was totally made up and didn’t have anything to do with who he really was, but Avedon was a famous photographer, he’d learned that in class, and maybe people would think he was related. Who’d know? The guy was dead. Maybe he could be Bobby Arbus, after Diane. She was totally cool, and dead, too.

     Kodak, that was too weird. Bobby Polaroid? He burst out laughing, then choked it back when some lady beside him took her eyes off the dead guy long enough to frown at him. Right, laughing at a murder, not cool. He coughed to cover it up. Pretended to talk into his Bluetooth earpiece. “Oh, so funny,” he said to no one. “But can’t talk now.”

      Oh. He had it! Bobby Land. Like Polaroid-Land, which he’d learned in class, too, a guy no one even knew about anymore. No one could argue about Bobby Land. He’d just let people think he was from a famous—and rich—family. Couldn’t hurt, and might even help.

     Bobby Land the famous photographer. What was the Boston thing? One if by Land? He laughed again and got another glare from the stupid woman. He clicked off a shot of her when she wasn’t looking. Take that, sweetheart. There’s one by Land.

                                    **************.

HANK: So what do you know about Bobby?  One commenter will win an ARC of WHAT YOU SEE!  (And yes, thank you so much! WHAT YOU SEE is availabLe for pre-order!  Right here:

Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/What-You-Hank-Phillippi-Ryan/dp/0765374951

BN: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/what-you-see-hank-phillippi-ryan/1120919200?ean=9780765374950

Indiebound: http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780765374950

BAM: http://www.booksamillion.com/p/What-See/Hank-Phillippi-Ryan/9780765374950

Choosing a Point of View

ROBERTA: So far all of my published books have been written in the first person. This made my job pretty straightforward. As long as I stuck to my character's point of view, stayed in her head, I couldn't write a word unless she heard, saw, or thought it. It was like writing with blinders on.

I'm trying something different in my new book. The book has two POV protagonists who alternate chapters. This of course widens the possibilities of where I can take the action, but it also raises lots of questions. For example, does it work if the chapters are not balanced between the two characters? Will it work to tell the story as one character sees it, and then back up and tell again from the other's POV? And when I reach points in the story where both characters will be present, whose head I should be in?

So I'd love to hear your opinions about point of view--how do you prefer to write and what do you prefer to read?

JAN: It really depends on the story and the author. I think if the author has a great voice the narration is often stronger in the first person. I loved Scott Turow in first person, like him less whenever he writes in third.

Like you Roberta, I'm trying to escape the prison of first person -- sort of. The story is told by an unseen narrator who writes in the first person, but can see everything. So the effect is ominiscient -- almost. I tried allowing my narrator to go into everybody's head whenever I felt like it, but my writers's group got confused. Now I allow the narrator into only one viewpoint at a time and shift it by section - much like you are doing. I'm making mistakes, but I feel there's no point writing if I'm not going to try to experiment and grow!

HALLIE: I confess I love a single narrator. But it does mean when your character gets stuck in a dungeon the reader's stuck there with him. Writing Never Tell a Lie, I started to feel claustrophobic when I got myself locked in an attic with my character Ivy.

The book I'm writing has occasional scenes narrated by different characters, so the reader knows more than my protagonist - it feels like a good way to build suspense. But I'm not sure those scenes will survive.

In the last Dr. Peter Zak book, Guilt, I alternated between two characters' viewpoints -- and then in the final crescendo short scenes snapped back and forth between them. It was hard, when both of those characters were in a scene, to decide who gets the viewpoint. How do you decide??

ROBERTA: Oh Hallie, I was hoping you'd answer that!

RHYS: When I conduct workshops I teach that every book has a point of view that works better than others. If the story is stalled or not going well, I tell them to try writing it in the first person to see where the characters themselves want to go. I have written in first and third and multiple points of view and I have to say that both Molly and Georgie's voices came so easily to me. I almost sit back and let them write. My only pet peeve in books is a story written in the present tense. It annoys me.

ROBERTA: Watch out Rhys--Hank's series is in the present tense:).

HANK: Oh, sorry Rhys. It's because of writing for TV news, I think. I love first person present, because it allows the reader to make mistakes along with the main character. To misjudge and misread and then make decisions based on those wrong perceptions. Because of course, as the author, I know what's correct and what's really happening. But I don't have to tell Charlie McNally.

But I wondered if I could do it another way--not sound like Charlie McNally, not be in present tense. SO I wrote a short story in third person, just to see, you know? And it was a completely different experience. And so--empowering.
I think--the story decides how it's written.

RO: As it happens, the manuscript I just delivered has two POVs. The second POV only occurs in a few chapters, but I felt I had to do it to tell the story I was telling. I think it works..we'll see what my editor says. It's challenging to write in the first person, and I like the idea that my character knows things just a few moments before the reader does, but it can be exhausting to keep coming up with new ways for her to get information she needs to solve the crime!

ROBERTA: Ok JR readers, please pitch in with your opinions. And then come back often this week--we have a great line-up. On Tuesday, visit with Chris Knopf, author of the Sam Acquillo mysteries, who will talk about setting books in the Hamptons and writing for a small press. On Wednesday, visit with Chester Campbell to learn everything you need to know about blog book tours. And on Friday, listen in as literary agent Paige Wheeler talks about the book biz right now.